Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
★★★★ — Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Inside Llewyn Davis arrived in 2013 as something of a passion project for Joel and Ethan Coen, coming off the back of True Grit (2010) and its extraordinary commercial success. Where that film earned over $250 million worldwide, this one is a considerably quieter, more interior affair, shot largely in New York and Nashville with T Bone Burnett (who had collaborated with the brothers on O Brother, Where Art Thou?) supervising a folk-heavy soundtrack performed live on set. The film draws loosely on the memoirs of Dave Van Ronk, a real Greenwich Village folk musician of the early 1960s, situating its story in the brief, fertile window before Bob Dylan arrived and changed everything. For Oscar Isaac, it was very much the role that announced him as a serious leading man.
Now I get it. I'm a huge Coen Brothers fan so the first time I watched this movie I was wholly disappointed. It just felt like a movie about nothing. Now, rewatching 10+ years later or whatever I get it. It's not a story about a struggling musician, it's a story about a man struggling with grief. As good as Oscar Isaac is, it's John Goodman and Carey Mulligan who steal the show. The soundtrack is incredible, as expected from a folk movie. Would highly recommend this movie.
Rating: ★★★★ | Year: 2013 | Watched: 2025-04-05
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More from Ethan Coen: True Grit (2010) · Burn After Reading (2008) · Barton Fink (1991) · Fargo (1996)
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